Entrepreneurs in UAE debate ways to succeed

Abu Dhabi: "Entrepreneurs in the UAE tend to acquire funding relatively easily, but fail to set up the requisite strategic planning framework to ensure success," said Sana Bagersh, founder of Tamakkan and CEO of BrandMoxie, at the Tamakkan entrepreneurship and innovation seminar titled Inspiring New Thinking.

Tamakkan is a non-profit organisation founded by BrandMoxie as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) collaboration with businesses who want to give back to the country. The seminars are organised every month, and consist of academicians and experts who share knowledge and experiences, and by companies that want to facilitate knowledge transfer to the local community.

The seminar held Wednesday night at the Al Mamoura Auditorium, was attended by a mix of Emirati entrepreneurs with new projects, owners of existing businesses, academics and consultants, all who participated in exciting discussions and debates on strategic planning, branding challenges in the UAE and social networking trends for businesses. The series of seminars is sponsored by John Buck International — Aldar.

"As a phenomenon young entrepreneurs in the UAE tend to rush into setting up a business. They get the financing, rent the space, hire the staff and open for business, and then realise quickly that they are in trouble because they didn't do the proper research and planning," said Bagersh.

Dr Constance van Horne, Assistant Professor at Zayed University who holds her PhD in Strategy and gave a presentation on Essential Strategic Planning for SMEs said the most common tendency for SMEs is to neglect planning.

"Planning tends to be reactive rather than proactive and yet it is vital for SMEs to engage in strategic planning as it is the key factor in the growth and success of the business."

Van Horne explained that SMEs should get support to succeed because "SMEs make up the largest business sector in every world economy and are regarded as the keystone of regional economic growth and community regeneration."

Georgina Kelly, founding partner of Creative Intelligence, gave a presentation titled Brands to Grow.

"You create a company, but you build a brand — over time," she said. "Creating a brand identity for your company invites your customers to a brand experience which is ultimately how the audience is likely to relate to your company."

Jim Buckingham, Senior Education Technology Specialist and Mathematical Modelling (Statistics) Instructor at Zayed University inspired the audience through an interesting exploration of the use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter in promoting SMEs.

"We need to be creative when it comes to listening to the needs of our customers. The key in identifying business trends of SMEs is to be lean, mean and innovate."